1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feeding device for a stuffing and dosing pump of a vacuum stuffing machine for alimentary pastes, preferably ground or extruded meat.
More specifically, the invention relates to mechanical thrusting means positioned in the space under the hopper in order to operate continuously on the meat paste, thrusting and compacting it in the direction and toward the inlet of said stuffing pump.
2. Prior Art
The expression "meat paste" must be intended as relating to a bulk of meat more or less finely ground by a grinder, or meat extruded from a die plate, which substantially generates a meat emulsion. Traditional stuffing machines, currently on the market, comprise essentially a truncated cone hopper combined with an internal rotating mixing element, which facilitates the conveyance of the meat paste downward in the direction of the inlet hole of the stuffing pump whose chamber, operating in a condition of substantial vacuum, sucks the meat paste in.
Said internal rotating mixer is, as it is known, constructed both as a shaft provided with radial jutting pegs located at angularly and axially staggered positions, and as a spiral helix which generates a downward thrust on the food product paste stored in the hopper in the direction of the stuffing pump.
Over the last few years there emerged as highly desirable the need to improve the quality of the stuffing operation, particularly, as it is well known to the skilled in the art, in the attempt to guarantee a perfect withdrawal of air from the product by means of new use techniques for the thrusting devices which thrust the material toward the stuffing pump, in order to make the product itself bright in its sliced state, ready for consumption. This is a desirable objective for any food product paste which is conveyed to the stuffing and for all the various shapes and dimensions of the stuffing itself.
The currently known stuffing systems are ill-suited to meet the needs of the different kinds of meat pastes intended for stuffing, and they do not always result in high quality products. With regard to this, it must be stressed that when the stuffing is obtained by means of traditional hoppers operatively linked with the known conveyor devices quite a few problems arise, whose solution has frequently proved rather difficult. It has been known for a long time that obtaining a constant feeding of the food product paste with the traditional hoppers and the known associated elements is difficult, because the vacuum differential between the existing vacuum in the chamber of the stuffing pump and the vacuum generated in the hopper for an improved deaeration of the paste itself is not enough to generate a sufficiently positive pressure on the product, so as to guarantee continuously a complete filling of the stuffing pump chamber through suction.